"Over here, Ai!"
Shiro called as though Ai didn’t know where he was. She had to turn around now. She had been trying to lure him close enough to strike, and he was ruining it. She blew out a breath and swung her quarterstaff at his head.
Shiro blocked.
"Nice save," she grunted and attacked.
It was a long series of thrust after thrust and lots of slippage of grips and steps from sweat and it all ended in a draw. Shiro sank down to the ground in a heap and Ai sighed and tossed him a bottle of water before slumping down herself.
"Arigatou," he murmured, taking a huge gulp that left water spilling down his chin. "This is a lot harder than it looks."
"It only gets harder," Ai assured him. "Although I’ll confess I’m a bit mystified as to why you would want to learn to fight with a quarterstaff."
Shiro shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe we just need some more common ground."
//It does _not_ feel like we’re married,// Ai told herself yet again. She could tell that Shiro felt an emotional distance as well; like they should feel closer but they didn’t. //We love each other, right? That’s what’s important.// And it was. But Ai looked up at the sky as she tilted more water into her mouth. //Wonder why I wasn’t a ‘blushing’ bride.//
Goten swore she was. Then again, he didn’t exactly have much experience with brides, having only gotten married one time to a man. He shrugged when she pointed it out and asked what he needed to know about brides; he would never leave Trunks and vice versa; and if something happened to Trunks he would be disinclined to remarry, even though he was still relatively young; about 38 or something. Ai reminded herself to ask some time. Of course, he hadn’t expressly said that he would be disinclined to remarry, but for all intents and purposes it was written on his face.
Ai wondered whether it was a good thing that she was somewhat relieved. She’d never known any parents but Goten and Trunks, and wasn’t too eager to have it changed. So in that case, Goten really didn’t need to know anything about brides.
"You look distracted," Shiro said. "Doushita no?"
"Nhn." Ai made a vague sound as she shook her head. Shiro reached over and touched her cheek and she smiled a bit. "Nothing, irrelevant things."
"Let’s go in."
"Good idea." She let him help her to her feet.

"So in physics, they said-"
Ai was distracted by Rei down the table. It wasn’t so often anymore that they got together to eat as a family, and Ai wished Rei would talk. She was sitting by her fiancé, so no can do.
"Ai-chan," Goten said in his idle lecturing voice as he passed a bowl of noodles to Keisuke, "I still don’t get why you aren’t in something... physical."
"Do I have to be a brainless twit all my life?" Shiro glanced up a bit at Ai, giving her a slightly warning look as her dry humor started to get out of hand.
"Was that a family inference?" Trunks wondered, and Goten turned to him.
"Was _that_ a family inference?" Trunks shook his head and so Goten turned back to his daughter. "It’s just that I thought things like the martial arts made you happy, you know?"
"That’s not all I want to do. I’m not Our Savior, so I don’t think martial arts will pay the bills."
If there was one thing the five kids had inherited that Goten reflected on with chagrin was a profound distaste for his brother’s father-in-law. He laughed lightly as he pulled a bowl of vegetables toward himself and moved some onto his plate without another comment.
"He’s just trying to understand what brought about your sudden switch in career goals," Trunks tried. He was somewhat more eloquent about things, and Goten had developed the habit of pointing at his husband and saying, "What he said." He did so now.
"I think it’s my exposure to college that changed my mind," Ai began, but Akira broke her off with a sly smile.
"She’s thinking about the future, Tou-san. You know, raising kids isn’t cheap these days."
"And you think you guys were cheap?"
"You made ‘em that way," Goten said in a sing-song voice.
"I wasn’t calling my kids spoiled, though they are."
Shiro glanced from face to face until he felt Akira nudge him in the side. "You cut it out."
"Joudan ja nai wa yo," Ai said. "If there’s one thing I’m not ready for, it’s kids."
Shiro’s dark gaze fixed on her, and Hikaru stabbed at a carrot as she murmured, "Maybe you should discuss that with your husband."
Ai’s gaze locked with Shiro’s, but it wasn’t negative as she feared it would be, just blank. Apparently this stuff was being digested in his mind, and it didn’t appear to be something he’d thought of before. He shrugged at last and looked down to pull up some noodles from his bowl and look back up at the assembly. "As far as I figure, it’s her decision, ‘cause I don’t want to be the one she blames when she’s in misery."
"You people are so insensitive!" Ai cried.
"It’s in the blood," Trunks murmured with amusement. "Well, you shouldn’t rush into anything you’re unprepared for, anyway. Seems like parenting is getting tougher and tougher."
"I know, right? What scares me is that I bet within a few years we’ll hear at least one echo of that sentiment from one of our kids." Goten looked around the table with a shiver.
"And of course, with our families’ natures, it’ll be the one we least expect," Trunks agreed.
"That means...our little Keisuke, all grown up and..." Goten sniffed as he drug Keisuke against him in a headlock. "You and I should talk, son."
"We’ve all _had_ that talk!" Keisuke insisted as he struggled to free himself. Goten ruffled the fourteen-year-old’s hair affectionately and let him go.
"He’s the one you least expect?" Trunks asked wryly.
"In the next few years," Goten clarified and Trunks dipped his head in acknowledgment. "He’d better not anyway." Keisuke’s three sisters laughed and gave him cute looks, and Rei reached over to pat him on the head.
"Don’t worry, chibi-nii-chan, we all know you’re a good boy. Don’t let them tease you."
"You know, Goten," Akira said at last. He had taken to calling him just ‘Goten’ after he married Trunks, and Goten was just as comfortable either way. "I don’t think you should bug Ai-chan about what she’s studying. She’ll make us all proud no matter what she does."
"That’s true," Goten said. "Not like that loser husband of hers. Man, he’s awful!" Goten teased his son-in-law with a grin, and Shiro grinned back ruefully.
"Her loser husband is beginning to feel like a loser," Shiro commented. Ai looked up at him in curiosity. "In school at any rate. I’m just not happy in anything I’m doing. I don’t understand why. In high school I could find something I liked about everything I studied, but now I just sit in class staring out the window and wishing I’m out playing." He frowned at his plate and Ai listened carefully as she took a drink of milk.
"What do you define as ‘playing’?" Goten asked, holding his chopsticks midair as he considered it.
"I dunno." Shiro shrugged and grinned at Ai. "Letting Ai beat me black and blue with a quarterstaff?"
Ai rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair.
"Well," Goten said, and paused to set down his chopsticks and take a bite of breadstick. "Does it make any difference who’s beating you black and blue?"
"Nah, playing with Rei’s fun too." He grinned down at the end of the table, where Rei paused and smirked at him. She turned back to whatever she was talking about with Ashitare, her big blond boyfriend.
"_You_ could do something physical," Goten suggested.
"Yeah, but then what would I do with it once I’m out of college? I don’t want it to be one of those things that you lose and leaves you groundless later in life. I want to have at least some other skills."
"You don’t have to just go out for a team. You could teach, you know. Or maybe if you talked to a counselor you could find something you like with appropriate physical skills in the job description."
"Whoa, Goten-chan," Trunks interrupted. "That’s like, the most intelligent thing I’ve ever heard you say!"
"Hey!" Goten yelled as the kids all started laughing except for Rei and Ashitare who looked around in puzzlement. "Oh, I see now, you’ve always only loved me for my body!"
"Hey baby, I love you for your mind, too." Trunks played to the stereotypical response for such an accusation. "It’s just that your body looks a lot better." The girls continued laughing while the guys paused and shook it off after they’d thought about it and turned back to eating. "Besides, it’s not your fault your father was born blond and you inherited it."
"Hey!" Akira and Hikaru yelled. Ashitare made a face as well.
"Feel free to object, no one’s going to crucify you for disagreeing with him," Ai informed Ashitare breezily.
"If Marron was alive she’d be rolling over in her grave!" Goten said, shaking a breadstick at Trunks.
It seemed that mention of Trunks’ deceased wife had become something less than a capitol offense as the years of their marriage seemed to fly by. Even the kids took it less seriously, because anyone in the family opened their mouth and every other phrase was a joke.
"Try that again, Chibi," Trunks said with a put-on patronizing air.
"I got it right the first time!"
"Was that like the time you said the phrase "Don’t cross your chickens until your bridges are hatched" was correct?" Trunks asked coolly and Goten grew more frustrated.
"That’s not fair! I was in a hospital bed with twelve broken bones, doped up on painkillers!" Goten took a savage bite of his breadstick. "And that was your fault too."
"Don’t want to know..." Ashitare said, shaking his head.
"The boy has a sense of humor after all," Ai commented.
"Forget that!" Shiro exclaimed. "The boy speaks!"
"To someone other than Rei," Akira added. The two cackled at their supposed cleverness and left Ashitare alone for a while. Rei was a very dark color.
"Shiro, leave that boy alone," Ai said. They weren’t being too polite, continuing to call him ‘boy’, since he was as old as they were, but they usually relegated him to Rei’s age ranking in the family, due to the sheer fact that he was always with her.
"Welcome to the family," Goten commented, seeming to get over his pretend huff at Trunks. "Prepare to have all of your flaws and every thought you’ve ever had thrown back into your face," he said with a smile.
"Thrilled, I’m sure."
"Sugoi ne," Ai said with a grin. "He’ll fit in just fine."
With that pronouncement, everyone seemed to stop dwelling on the fact that he was the only stranger in their midst, and Rei flashed her "big sister" a big grin.
After a little while, Ai and Shiro went home to the one-bedroom apartment they lived in across town. It was back in the districts where Shiro had grown up, a world Ai had known for a couple years’ time, but coming back it seemed that there was no difference. It was between generations, so you couldn’t even say it was the next generation of the exact same people; it was that you saw less of them as they were older now, and more of their kids, and many of their children had children, so that sometimes up to four generations lived in a two- or three-bedroom apartment. It made Ai sad sometimes to see the young women, still teens and many underage so burdened with the responsibilities of parenthood, but there was no way to change the habits of an entire city.
Ai closed the window and thought. They were lucky. Even living here, it didn’t matter. They were both proud, and had worked hard to be where they were; Shiro studying until his brains oozed out his ears to get a good partial scholarship, and Ai receiving a full scholarship and paying the rest of her husbands (unbeknownst to him) with her high school graduation present of money, and a part-time job. They both had part-time jobs for food, and so they made enough to keep them alive and pretty happy, and it was nice for them despite the surroundings, with Shiro’s mother nearby and a large family whom they saw often on Ai’s side, all willing to help if anything went wrong for them.
Shiro came out of his shower and stood in the doorway to the small living room, yawning and watching his wife. She was often too silent for his tastes, and when she talked she often said nothing. He had grown used to her and never loved her less either way. Still, now, he wished he knew what was going on behind her serious eyes.
"Doushita no," Shiro began as he moved into the room. "Ai?"
She turned her face up looking mildly startled at the sound of her name. He came and stood over her with one hand on her shoulder. "Nothing," she replied. "Musing. Got distracted."
"You’ve been pretty distracted lately," Shiro returned easily enough. "Mind telling me about what?"
"It’s..." she shrugged, and he was getting to know her face enough that he knew she was telling the truth. "I don’t honestly know, I... guess I’ve just been in a reflective mood lately."
"What kind of reflections?" Shiro asked, maybe a little darkly.
"I demand to know what thoughts have brought about that tone in your voice," she said, and stood to face him.
"I don’t know." He told her pointedly. "That’s just it; something about your attitude lately bothers me."
"And what does _that_ mean?" She asked archly, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms.
Shiro shook his head. "Don’t get all confrontational with me, Ai-chan... I’m not in the mood to lose. I’m not saying this right...." He sat down, and Ai dropped her arms in surprise, not knowing him as the type who had trouble expressing himself.
"It’s just..." he began at last. "I don’t know, maybe it’s stupid, or maybe I’m overreacting...."
Ai could sense that it was important. "Tell me," she urged.
"You don’t seem...." Ai was almost sure she heard the word ‘happy’ muttered under his voice.
"Nani?" Ai asked, perplexed. He confirmed it louder. "Shiro...!" Ai sighed as she brought her hands up in a shrug with her eyes to the ceiling, and sank down to her knees in front of him. "I don’t know what’s giving you that idea..."
"I said it was stupid."
"It’s _not_," Ai said, blazoning her path over the subject with determination, "If that’s what you really think."
"I don’t know what to think. I mean... it hasn’t been that long, but I already know that it’s nothing like what I expected." Shiro leaned forward, toward her and propped his chin on his hand, elbow on his knee.
Ai sank back onto her heels with a deep, deep sigh.
"I’m not _un_happy."
"Are you happy?"
"I’m with you, aren’t I? How many times have I told you how happy you make me?" Ai persisted even though she felt more exhausted by the moment.
"Saa... doushita no?"
"Nothing’s _wrong_..." Ai began, looking aside as if to put her finger on it. "I suppose it’s kind of what you said... that being married doesn’t feel like I thought it would. It’s not bad, I mean, this is something that I’ve wanted for.." she threw a hand up to indicate that she gave up on her guess.
"_Something’s_ wrong," Shiro insisted. "I feel it too."
The two sat in silence for a long moment.
"Is it this place?" Shiro asked at last. "I mean, I wanted to be near my mother, you know how she’s not doing so well..." Takeuchi Megumi had been diagnosed with a terminal illness quite some time ago. It had some long scientific name but Ai hadn’t had time to learn it, too busy comforting Shiro through the knowledge.
"It’s not your mother, I love her, and it’s not this place, because place doesn’t matter."
"You were always too good for this place," Shiro said with a sigh. "My ghetto Queen. And you were too good for me... I know a lot of people have told you that, too. Maybe you should have listened to them."
Ai reached up and slapped him lightly across one cheek, then leaned forward and kissed the other. "Talk sense, itooshii."
Shiro paused in the mood he was working up, and smiled at her endearment. "But still... I often wonder why you wanted to have anything to do with me, when you could have had your pick and have your life provided for you. You could have devoted your days to anything you wanted, be it study of the science you love so much, or anything you choose."
"Well, just point me in the right direction!" Ai began, and Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Free lives? Heck yeah. And I could have my pick, like you said. I could pick you to be the pool guy."
"The pool guy?" Shiro was blinking rapidly now.
"Sou da ne! Everyone knows you _always_ have affairs with the pool guy."
Shiro paused, caught in silence, until Ai winked at him and he couldn’t help but laugh. After a moment he threw himself on his knees on the floor and pulled Ai to him, hugging her tightly, face buried in her flower-scented hair. "I love you so much, Ai."
"I love _you_, Shiro... and _that’s_ why I married you."
Shiro pulled Ai into his lap and sat hugging her for a long time. She lay her head on his shoulder and wrapped one arm across his bare chest, holding onto his shoulder.
"So... you don’t want kids?" Shiro asked at last.
"Why do you ask?"
"It’s not something we discussed, and... well I didn’t really think about it."
"I thought as much from your expression. Wakarimasen." Ai sighed. "Maybe someday."
"I never thought about having kids... you know, girls always want kids, and guy s think about it with terror. I had my fill with Akane and Akai, I suppose. So, it wouldn’t be bad, and it wouldn’t be new, but.... I don’t ever remember being without some attachment."
"Do you dislike attachment?" Ai asked after a moment.
"No."
"Have you grown less than fond of it?"
"It’s just the omnipresence of that attachment I suppose. But I don’t mind being attached to you."
"Watashi no ganbatte," Ai remarked.
"Hush, and give your poor overused sense of humor a rest. If you call that humor."
"Yes, I do. And no, I won’t."
"Iie?"
"Iie..."
"Well, it’s a good thing then."
"Nani yo?"
"That I fell in love with you and then promptly fell in love with your sense of humor." Shiro kissed Ai’s forehead lightly and sent her to bed, saying he’d be there shortly. But he stood in the window for a long time, looking at the forlorn deserted street.

There was a persistant knocking on the door. Shiro groaned and rolled over slightly, blinking his eyes into focus on the clock, wondering why in the world anyone would be banging on the door 7:30 on a Saturday morning with such enthusiasm.
"Ai!" There came an insistant feminine voice into Shiro's retreating dream state. "Ai! O-nee-chan! Get the hell up!" Bang bang bang!
"Ai!" Shiro added his voice to hers, nearly in time. "Ai! Get the hell up."
"Why should I?" Ai murmured sleepily.
"It's for you after all. And you got more sleep than me."
"Who's fault, exactly, was that?" Ai said as she pulled a robe on over her pajamas, yawning as she went to the door. After a few moments, Shiro heard, "Rei! I'll freakin' kill you..."
"Brought you a cup of coffee. Now listen...." And that was all Shiro heard before he pulled the pillow over his head.
"Shiro!" Ai called after a little while; about long enough for Ai to have a cup of coffee and address the main reason of Rei's visit. Rei usually called ahead, after all, saying she wouldn't want to disrupt the newly-weds.
"I'm not coming!"

It only took a few minutes' urging (and Ai physically coming into the bedroom to dress Shiro) to get him to come out to Rei. "What in the world are you thinking of, woman? Coming so early in the morning... don't you have a fiance to bug?"
"Ashitare is partly the reason for this visit. He was impressed by Ai's and mine's martial arts skills." she was being cute at the thought of him, and her grammar deteriorated until Ai gave her a "look."
"Tonikaku.." Rei shook her head. "I signed Ai and I up!"
Shiro crossed his arms and cocked one hip, mouth twisting slightly as one eyebrow rose. "Joudan desu ka?"
"Not!" Rei seemed pleased.
"Then you're crazy! You know what kind of people are drawn to the Tenka-ichi Budoukai." It was no question what was in her mind when she said 'martial arts.'
"What?" Rei crossed her legs at the dining room table and looked up at Shiro innocently over the rim of her cup. He and Ai stood above her. Ai's eyes were closed, expression fixed. Rei fidgeted slightly. //Oops!!//
"Especially the ones we know!" Shiro continued. "I could just see Goten-san after Yamucha or someone beat you two up!"
"Yamucha?" Rei exclaimed, insulted. Ai also opened her dark eyes and gave him a flat glare, but he was unsure as to whether that was meant for him or the situation.
"Well, I looked through the mail when I go it yesterday, and I found something interesting." Ai moved across the room and picked up an envelope. "I haven't opened it, but look at the name."
Shiro took the letter and examined it closely. The post markings all came from somewhere on Hokkaido that he couldn't identify, all the stamps being perpetually smudged. But he looked at the return address and read in small letters-
A gasp fought to free itself from his chest, but he instead held his breath and handed the envelope to Rei.
"Ano... who's Watase Ryuu?"
Ai shifted her stance slightly and let one hand balance herself on her hip, as she reached back for the letter with a little smirk. "He was my arch-rival in high school."
"Ooooohhh... sounds like a challenge!" Rei exclaimed, looking thrilled.
"_Why_ is that a good thing?" Shiro asked. Even with such bright purple hair, sometimes Rei was so- well, blond. Shiro sighed as he realized he had come to think of her as another sister, but it didn't much help when he was trying to relate to her.
"I love watching Ai teach these punks! Remember that one with the bright blue gi that she-" Rei imitated a few sketchy moves. "He went right out!"
"!" Shiro could definately feel a headache now. "That was _him_, you moron!"
"Oh, wow! hey... I'm not a moron." Rei pouted, and Shiro waved it away impatiently and glanced over at his wife, who was handling the letter with some consternation at the developing conversation. "Well, you gonna fondle it all day?"
"Shut _up_, Shiro," Ai said and ripped at the envelope. She read silently for a moment, the knuckles of one hand propped against her lips. After a moment Shiro grew impatient and tapped a foot.
"He's entering the Tenka-ichi Budoukai.... and he saw my name on the entrance lists, thanks to our dear sister." Ai handed the letter over so her husband would stop breathing down her neck. "He challenges me to fight him in the ring at the tournament."
"No way." Shiro said as he finished the letter. "I don't want you to go." He shook his head as his eyes skimmed, up to down, left, and back to the right to read it over again.
"And why not?" Ai asked, turning to face him and ignoring Rei's curious stare.
"There's no way you'd win!" Shiro threw the letter onto the table. Rei caught it before it hit the wood, and was perusing it with wide eyes. "You know how his family was built. Like a bunch of frickin' houses!" Shiro moved his arms up and out with a dark expression, estimating about the right size for a baby killer whale. "No frickin' way!"
"_You're_ in college?" Ai asked, and Shiro caught the hint and at least tried to speak like a rational person, saying even before she closed her mouth, "And he was good! Contrary to popular opinion..." Shiro cast a doubtful look at his sister-in-law. "You just barely beat him when we were freshmen! Goten-san was going on about your injuries for weeks! He would freak!"
"A- I am a grown woman and do as I choose, despite what you or even my father would think. Two- would you please leave off the use of every form of the word 'freak' or 'frick' or-"
"The _point_, my dear, is not yet made!" Shiro snatched the letter from Rei and brandished it at his wife, shaking it around as his eyes bore into hers. "I don't know what that freak-"
Ai gave him a look.
"I don't know what that whacko had wrong with his nervous system, but don't you remember how he hated you? How you were always the best? And a girl, yet! What kind of humiliation is that to a big strong intelligent guy like Ryuu who had always been 'the man' at everything until you came along? I don't think that guy would stop until he seriously hurt you!" Shiro sighed as his wife's face evinced no change. "Besides, if that's not enough, what's the liklihood that you're both good enough to face each other? That Yamucha comment is not too far off! You know every time him and a bunch of the others always go to at least make a stab for the pot, especially since your fathers' families stopped attending. You don't do the bang bang thingy from your fingertips!"
As Shiro was going into SD mode, he severely doubted that Ai listened to him, as she had a tendancy to tune him out when he got on her nerves. It was one of the things that usually made their relationship work, but Shiro was supremely frustrated now. Ai's gaze was focused on him, but it was so flat if she'd been lying down you could rollerskate over her eyes.
"And if you can't do the ki thingy you can't hope to win against the likes of your family's friends!" Spent, Shiro sagged into a chair.
"As you well know, there is no killing, and no abuse of the fighter after unconsciousness has ensued. As a personal philosophy, all of the fighters with abilities above and beyond the range of the human norm, which would mainly be those we know, who are getting up there and likely wouldn't attend-"
"Whaddaya mean?" Shiro exclaimed.
"My parents are third-generation. The first generation can only hide their age for so long! So as I was saying, the rough outlines of the credo taken to heart by those we know when fighting in the ring is that a fight should be fair; that's why there are no Super Saiya-jin, no Kamehameha waves, no weapons, and no nothing in the ring! And, lastly, as it so happens, I can use energy attacks."
"N-n-" shiro coughed slightly. "Nani? Joudan ja nai wa yo!"
"Iie." Ai folded her arms and a sudden rough grin touched her dark features, the ragged animalistic expression that the hunter obtains just before he bags his- or her- prey. Shiro had a sinking feeling as he observed that look.
"Dammit, why do I always lose before I even start?" Rei offered Shiro a large dougnut and he crammed about half into his mouth.
"Daijoubu desu yo, itooshii..." Ai insisted, moving to catch his shoulders. "I know I'll be good, and it's not about the money, so I won't get upset if I lose the competition. And it's not about the stupid fight; if I ever put one bully into his place I can rack 'em all up. It's really about the opportunity to better myself. It's always been appealing to me, and you know it. Face it, as an opponent you're simply not in my league."
"I could have married a cute blond who worshipped my footprints and lived to make me dinner. Instead I marry a walking compulsion case." Rei nodded sympathetically, from behind the magazine she had picked up five minutes ago. She shoved the bag of doughnuts toward Shiro, and he accepted, clutching them like a lifeline. "I'm... going to go eat my doughnuts, shower, and then I'm going to talk to Goten."
"Don't think you'll talk me out of it, darling!" Ai called after him and Rei glanced between them both and rolled her eyes.

"I can't talk her out of it! This is a totally crazy plan!" Shiro insisted, downing another cup of coffee at an alarming rate. Goten frowned with concern at his consumption rate but handed him another cup.
"My apologies, mukodono..." Goten murmured and took a bite of a cookie. "But I don't see what would give you the idea you'd get sympathy from me."
Shiro sighed, propping his chin up, the rapidly tapping fingers of the other hand nearly knocking over the plate of cookies between the two men.
"Oh, I'll give you my _sympathies_, of course," Goten continued, "as little good as they'd do you. But don't forget that she's a Saiya-jin girl."
"No she's not!" Shiro insisted.
"Some are Saiya-jin by blood and some by choice, and there are the unfortunate few who, with difficulty, must be both. Ai is my daughter and she'll always act like it. Are you sure you aren't overreacting?" Goten's reply was accomodating on all levels except the one that Shiro wanted to hear; 'oh, you're absolutely right, it's far too dangerous, I forbid her to go...'
"What makes you think I'd be overrreacting?" Shiro asked, fighing off his frustration.
Goten's eyes swiveled toward the back window, out which he could see the two oldest girls training. "She's certainly capable enough. Why, if Trunks and I decided to enter the tournament ourselves..." Goten happened to spy Trunks passing by the dining room and raised his voice. "Provided that we avoid all instances of cheating!" Trunks paused just long enough to give them a curious look. "Then it would still be a genuine challenge both ways."
"For one thing, it's the 'challenge-' the one from Watase Ryuu, that I'm most concerned about. You don't know just how much he hated her! And it didn't stop there. I used to be one of his best friends, until I refused to give up my association with Ai and became his number two target. It's a level of animosity that goes beyond what can be simply explained in terms of instances and events. In the end, there was really no apparent reason for him to despise her the way he did."
//Maybe...// Shiro at last admitted to himself, //That's what's bothering me. He gave his word that one day he would get even with Son Ai, and who knows if he still bears the shame of his first defeat even now. What is he doing even now to prepare for her?//
After a long time, Shiro voiced his thoughts to his father-in-law, who only winced delicately and agreed that such irrational malice would not run the course of a normal competition's life-span, and was therefore difficult to predict. But even Goten's confirmation of Shiro's hesitancy failed to communicate the level of sheer hatred he had seen in Watase Ryuu's gaze the last time he had laid eyes on him; after the competition with Ai.
"I don't think I'll ever fully understand..." Shiro said with a sigh.
"I don't think it's overly important that you do. If Ai understands, then what we believe is unimportant."
"I wonder how he recognized her? His letter said, 'from the entrance rosters,' but-"
"I wonder what it would be like to be you," Goten said after a moment, chin in hand as Shiro was, gazing at him in curiosity.
"Nani?"
"To believe that ever, at any point, "Takeuchi Ai" was such a stretch. I don't think your buddy had to think twice."
"Cut it out!" Shiro insisted, and Goten did his best to keep from grinning and failed. "That could have been anybody."
"It could have," Goten agreed quite readily. "It could also have been enough to get a half-forgetful martial artist to get curious and look it up, to confirm the obvious." This was a tease in Shiro's direction as well, but also a request for some clear thought.
"I just don't like this. It's... shady. I mean, the original deal with him was, but, this is too clear-cut in comparison."
"You get used to it," Goten said, wondering exactly what it was he meant.

Ai responded to the gentle tugging at her ponytail by passing a pencil over her shoulder. Shiro accepted and continued to tug at her ponytail, but talked quietly in her ear. "What'd you get for number one?"
"The square root of twenty-three," Ai responded. Shiro stuck out his tongue when she turned to look at him and asked what she really got. "George Washington," Ai responded with a sigh.
"Oh, me too. I'm glad-"
"Class," The teacher said, going to the front with a stack of papers, and passed them out as he went. "This was indeed a grueling test, being over everything you've done for the past three months in here. Your grades showed great promise, except for the usual dropouts." A group of nineteen-year-olds hooted from the back of the freshman class. "But congratulations are in order for the person to score the highest grade..."
Shiro's gaze had slid to the side, seeing Watase Ryuu across the room with his little group of jocks and lackeys. He was smirking and preparing for his praise.
"...Son Ai. She got a nearly perfect score, only missing question number one, which she wrote was ...George Washington?" Ai smiled and shrugged and Shiro groaned and sank into his seat as Ai's paper was returned, and Shiro's was returned with an acceptable if not stellar grade.
Shiro's gaze found Watase Ryuu again, who had a blank look fixed on Ai. He had probably been bragging to his friends about how great he was, and Ai's taking the top grade in the class for the third week in a row had most likely caused him to lose face. But that was a personal thing; it only meant that if Ai stepped out of line in his face he would be twice as quick to reprimand her. Otherwise...
"Hey Son," Ryuu said a few moments later from beside Ai's desk, interrupting her conversation with Shiro. "Nice job. You know that answer was President Adams, right?"
Ai nodded. "Yeah. We covered that last year, remember? I just wasn't paying attention." She was gracious enough to exclude the mention of Shiro tugging at her hair to borrow a pencil.
"Yeah, say it for the school system," Ryuu said, but to Shiro's familiar gaze he looked supremely discomfited. "Anyways, how's about that challenge I asked you for? Three weekends from next, at Capsule Corp.?"
Ai thought about it as Shiro struggled to keep his mouth clamped shut. "Hai." She shrugged as she rose to shake his hand in a binding person-to-person contract.
"Great," Ryuu said with a slow smile. "I'll meet you there then."
Ai stared after Ryuu as he walked away. Just as Shiro felt the tiniest- _Tiniest!_, he told himself- pang of jealousy, she turned with her most thoughtful expression to Shiro.
"I wish you hadn't done that." Shiro began. "Something's weird about him. I don't think this feels right."
"Nonsense," Ai said firmly, but seemed uncertain. Shiro rose and opened his mouth, and it hung open as he caught glimpse of Ryuu over her shoulder, smirking at them from over his own shoulder, looking directly at Ai's back and laughing with his jock friends in a way that made Shiro a little nervous.
"Listen, Ai, I don't think you should-"
"Shiro, he's your friend, right?"
"Well, yeah..." to tell the truth, Ryuu and Shiro had been falling out of favor with each other, but...
"So then you would have warned me when I met him if he wasn't to be trusted, correct?"
"Yeah..."
"So, the challenge is at Capsule Corp., my home turf, and besides, what's the point of a challenge that isn't a challenge? He won't try anything."
"Demo..."
"Tonikaku," Ai gathered a couple books under her arm and reached up to touch her temple with a fingertip as though to steady a headache. "I've already given him my word."
"Ai-"
"Oyasumi ne, Shiro-kun," Ai said, walking off into the near-sunset colors. They were taking cram school together now after school too. Shiro watched her in concern and then turned toward home, not able to easily forget his worries.
Shiro responded to his name now called by his father-in-law, and shook his head slowly. "I'm feeling a little distracted today. Maybe I should go and get some work done. Might make me feel better."
"You do that, Shiro," Goten said doubtfully. "See you later."
"Kay."

Goten watched as his daughter and son-in-law moved off down the walk, and stood thoughtfully in the window. It was odd about those two; there was no doubt in any mind that they loved each other, but they had the oddest relationship.. they never would be taken for husband and wife by strangers.
"Goten, is something wrong?"
"I don't know... nothing, I suppose. I just kind of wonder if they're getting in deeper with this than I've realized, or them either."
"Come _on_," Trunks urged, pulling at his arm and smiling at him. "It's nearly dinner time. Don't tell me you're not hungry, you've only had one meal today."
Goten grinned slightly and wondered how he had managed it. He let Trunks pull him along, and they sat down at the dinner table across from Keisuke, who was the only one left at home now, and the twins, who came to visit often. They shared a small two-bedroom apartment in the middle of the city, and were roughly halfway between Capsule Corp. and the area where Ai and Shiro lived.
"I guess I just don't like the way they've been lately. They've seemed cold to each other if you ask me. I mean, not so much as you'd notice, but I mean..." Goten flexed his shoulders in a shrug, and Trunks sat quietly for a moment as Goten picked up a bowl of potatoes and passed them, trying to figure out what he meant.
"Saa, I suppose you might have something there."
"Suppose?"
"But then again, you know, it may be your imagination. Not everybody's like us, you know."
"Nani yo?" Goten asked as he reached to pick a chunk of something from the soup with his chopsticks and blow on it, watching the steam disperse.
"I just mean, everything for us was always competition, but now it's not. For some people everything's competition, even marriage."
"I don't really understand how you can say that marriage is not a competition. I mean," Goten said as he swallowed quickly, "Ours still is."
"No it's not," Trunks told him with a pointed look, while brushing some hair out of the path of his intense expression.
"Sure it is. That's natural. I mean, _this_ is a competition, this conversation." The kids, not really caring to know overmuch about marriage at ages eighteen eighteen and thirteen, wisely kept their mouths shut when not talking amongst themselves.
"What are you talking about?" Trunks asked his husband in one of his more polite tones, the one he used for bafflement on the edge of frustration. "We _know_ what _real_ competition is."
"And who determines that there is only one kind of competition? I mean, that's the form we're most familiar with, in the ring, but conflict and resolution is an automatic facet of life, if you realize it or not." Goten speared him with a pointed dark gaze as he reached to pick up a piece of bread.
"I never denied that," Trunks countered. "I mean that competition is used for those who pursue the same goals, like winning a martial arts championship. We definately understand that. How would competition be applied to us now? We're supposed to work _together_."
"Why do they always do this?" Akira asked in a flat voice that cut into Goten and Trunks' conversation. "They get into this semi-philosophical conversation that always leads to some big argument."
"Does that always happen?" Hikaru asked. "It doesn't always, does it?"
"Only when they're talking about themselves," Keisuke clarified, "Then they always do it. It's 'I'm right,' 'no I'm right!' 'Is that how you feel?' followed by 'it sure is, and it's right,' which brings on 'then I don't guess we can work it out' which precedes more sarcastic comments by both, which gets them pissed enough to bring on stage 6, or 'If we can't work it out then maybe we should get a divorce!'" Keisuke delivered it all barely looking up from his plate.
Akira and Hikaru started laughing hysterically, which only made Goten and Trunks flush and chorus, "Shut up!"
"Damn kids," Goten cursed. "Where was I?"
Trunks shrugged as he rolled his eyes, and they were both silent for a moment.
"Wow, maybe for once I managed to stop them before the sarcastic comment stage!" Keisuke said, impressed with himself. The twins tried really hard not to laugh, but then again, how easy was that when your little brother had all of the emotional patterns of his parents mapped out to nearly blow-by-blow on-the-minute plays.
"You know, Goten," Trunks commented slyly as he polished off a second helping of the stew, "You'd better hope it's not a competition, 'cause we all know how those turn out."
"What the hell does _that_ mean?" Goten asked, crossing his arms.
"Nothing. Just I think we both know who would win."
"Dammit, I've failed again," Keisuke muttered towards his plate. His brother and sister sympathized but ate faster.
"Watch your mouth," Goten told him distractedly, then looked back at Trunks. "I don't know what you think you mean by that-"
"I just mean I'd win," Trunks told Goten with a perfectly guileless expression, and took a drink of water. "We both know that I've always been stronger than you, Chibi."
"Who the hell ever told you that? The only way you ever won anything over me was by cheating anyways!" Goten's eyebrows knit in something approaching sulkiness, but it would alter again soon. "That's a pretty rude thing to say, either way, but I'll have you know that when it comes down to it.. there's no way you're stronger than me."
"Oh right," Hikaru said suddenly, with a flat expression. "It's a guy thing."
"And what makes you say that, Chibi?" Trunks asked with a raised eyebrow. "My family has royal blood; my father says that it was considered the purest of the race."
"He would say that... anyways, it's not pure anymore, is it. On the other hand, my father was common and is more than a match for your father. He's the strongest there is and you know it!"
"Anyway," Trunks replied testily, "This isn't about our fathers. Listen, Goten, I know you're really strong, but I just don't think you're stronger than me. If you were, wouldn't it have been called out by now? I mean if either of us get angry enough then you never know, but..."
"Trunks, why are you trying to start something with me?" Goten glared.
"I'm not. All I said was, 'I don't think you're stronger than me.'"
"You knew what reaction you'd get in that context!"
"It's nothing serious. It's not like it reflects on you, or even matters."
"Shut _up_," Goten said slowly.
Keisuke apparently lost his appetite and went into the kitchen to steal from dessert. Akira finished and followed him. "How often do they get like that?"
"No more than usual, when you lived here. You know, like it's the not fighting that gets to them?"
"They spar all the time."
But after that it was understood between the two brothers that male best friends give each other hell. "Well, if they can't work out a balance they'll keep fighting."
"Idiots. And it always turns out the same way."
"Which part?"
"Who's mad, and what happens afterward."
"You mean Goten." Ever since Trunks had married Goten, the boys had taken to addressing him as just 'Goten,' and he didn't seem to care. "Of course it is. His pride doesn't drive him like our father, so it's his pride that suffers."
"But they're both still proud. Sucks for them, huh?"
"Sucks for you, little one." Akira tapped his brother on the head. "Come stay with your sister and me tonight."
"Kay, but you're telling them."
Akira did so and Hikaru finished and went to get her jacket. She waited as her brothers bid their fathers goodbye and came out with her.
"They did that on purpose," Trunks noted after the front door closed.
Goten said nothing, but finished his dinner and left the room in silence.
"What the hell did _I_ do?" Trunks asked the silence.

Goten sat on the roof, still rather dismayed.
//He really didn't have to go there. That's not fair.//
It was true that everyone had always taken Trunks for the stronger one, and most of the time it was true. Goten grew even more dismayed when the thought occured to him that a Saiya-jin found their true power through loss, and in the long run he'd had very little. It felt like a raw deal, but what was there to say?
It was still not a cool thing for Trunks to bring it up. Power was a question whose answer had gone unuttered for thirty+ years.
//Fine. He wants to know who's more powerful? We're going to that damned tournament!//

PART TWO